tashi delek

I'm feeling nostalgic after my Dad sent me these photos of when we met in India and travelled together for a month with his Tibetan friend Bino and two Tibetan monks. I feel so blessed to have spent this time with my Dad. It took ten days in Delhi for our visas to be granted for the restricted area of Arunachal Pradesh where Bino's Mum lives in Mechuka a small mountain village near the border of China. There isn't much of a road there (although i see on trip advisor that they may be slowly constructing one...ha trip advisor!) and it takes about three days by 4x4. When we visted 15 years ago the locals told us that it had only been visited by tourists maybe ten times. It was remote and beautiful and the sustainable way they live up there continues to inspire me. All grain and crops were grown and water was collected direct from the river (we were told that the spirits would not be happy if you polluted the river in anyway...if a cow urinated near the water it would be sure to die shortly after) The toilets were away from the houses in wooden sheds and the ashes from the fires in the homes were used to neutralise the smell and create a compost for the fields. Cooking was done on a central fire in the middle of the room. Houses were timber framed. The staple crop was millet. The delicacy was a hard cheese made into cubes and would store for months. Up on the hill overlooking the village is a Tibetan Buddhist Temple visited by the Dalai Lama.  

a hindu festival celebrated in mechuka

Tibetan Pilgrimage. Wearing the traditional Chupa, apron and coral and turquoise beads ... i think the red bottle i'm carrying probably contained arak... local moonshine made from millet.

the hospitality was incredible but we were very drunk a lot of the time - the teapot was filled with arak and it was unlucky for a guests cup to become empty! 

stilted houses on the journey up the mountain

Stone People

Winter: All those creative ideas are manifesting in the roots as they reach down into the dark dank earth, soaking up the nutrients ready to rise with the sap in Spring. Although we've passed the Solstice I lose track of time, the dark seems infinite. A holding space, an incubator. My houseboat and studio have metamorphosed into cave like spaces where my mind is wide open to think and question, to draw, to vision, to write 

soaking up some rock wisdom into my bone marrow :)

On Twelfth Night the New Moon marked the beginning of the Lunar year. I met a friend and we went for lunch and a walk to Stanton Drew the nearest Stone Circle to where I live. This got me thinking about a recent deck of cards I was gifted called Sacred Path based on Native American philosophy. I drew the card Power Place. This card is about 

"finding a place of solace to seek at-one-ment with yourself or Great Mystery...When a human being goes to a Power Place, the attention of Mother Earth is directed to that spot, and energy begins to flow to that area because our bodies, like hers, are electromagnetic....Our Earth Mother has energy lines that are equal to the energy meridians in the human body. The Stone People (rocks) are equal to our bones and the soil is equal to our flesh. The waters of the planet are like our blood and weave the tides of our emotions" (Jamie Sams, Sacred Path Cards 1990)

 Rock Medicine is the idea that within the rocks are stored records, every internal thought of a person connecting with the space will be recorded by the rocks, an Earth-Record. The Medicine People go to the Stone People and listen. 
 Stone Circles and Tors are Power Places for thousands of people. 
I've ritualistically visited Trees since I was a child, the Ancient Ones are my Power Place. The Ancients help me put down my roots to the land, and connect me through the Wood Wide Web to where I've journeyed from.   

the pineal eye

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